As we've heard this week on Microsoft's Tech Ed Europe 2005 conference, Windows Mobile 5.0 will natively support the Bluetooth HID profiles with support of Bluetooth keyboards and I can prove it does! :-) I've tested the HTC Universal with my Think Outside Bluetooth keyboard and both pairs easily through Microsoft's native Bluetooth stack:

Right after you've bonded your Windows Mobile Pocket PC with your Bluetooth keyboard, you can use it - like below, the Think Outside Universal Bluetooth keyboard and the HTC Universal.

However, this implementation has a serious glitch - it doesn't support mixed languages! For instance if you use an English Pocket PC but you use a foreign language keyboard (like I did where I've used my German keyboard), the HID profile uses the language profile of the Pocket PC language, not the keyboard layout. So basically it means I can not use this combination at all because the Z and Y are switched on German keyboard layouts plus - and that's the real problem, most of the characters are different, not to mention this combination isn't supporting the German Umlauts. Okay, this will not be a wide problem at all since most users will not mix languages and will mostly use local language Pocket PCs but anyway - I have expected a better international support as I have it on my Desktop and Notebook PCs where I always use English OS versions but change the keyboard layout to German.

Also it seems as Windows Mobile could support supports the HID mouse profile. At least it recognizes my Logitech Bluetooth mouse as a HID device:

However, either it forces me to enter a PIN on my "input device" (how should I enter a PIN on the mouse - via Morse code? ) or even if I can cancel this, it doesn't shows a mouse pointer.

That is fantastic. I would love to hear your thoughts on the Universal as well. Size, speed, etc. I plan on getting one when they come out, and would love to hear from someone who has seen it in person.

Posted by Paragon on 09.07.05 - 04:44:02

how should I enter a PIN on the mouse - via Morse code?

HA! You crack me Arne! That's too funny.

There is an app that gets you past the need to enter a pin number. Unfortunately I think it was posted on Pocket PC Passion.....sorry....try a search on xda-dev.com.

Dave

Posted by Arne Hess on 10.07.05 - 19:32:29

smeg6 wrote:

That is fantastic. I would love to hear your thoughts on the Universal as well.

Yeah, you are right. I have the Universal for some time now but never have talked about it because I'm way too delayed with my review I'm still working on.Hope I can finalize it this week to upload it latest next weekend.

Posted by smeg6 on 10.07.05 - 21:25:06

First off, LUCKY! I am going to be very interested to read what you have to say. I am having an internal conflict right now about my device future. I have been planning on getting the Universal for months now, ever since I read about the VGA screen. However, I am moving to Miami Florida in a month, which is covered by Verizon Wirless' EVDO BroadbandAccess high speed data. People are reporting average speeds in the 500kbps range, on thier Pocket PC's! Also very timely with this is Verizon's release of the Samsung i730, which looks like an amazing device. I went to my Verizon store last night to play with it, and it is truely a great looking/feeling PPC/Phone.

Sorry to all those non-USA users out there who don't really care because CDMA is a US standard, but this is a big conflict for me. What to do. Hopefully your review will give me some direction Arne. Thanks for the heads up.

Posted by whtrbt7 on 12.08.05 - 23:32:41

Sorry this is coming in late Arne,The reason why a Bluetooth Mouse won't work on the Universal is due to the fact that there is no clickable interface built into the WindowsCE OS. The passive digitizer allows for touchscreen use but noone really ever thought that you would need to have a cursor floating around on a PPC since it is faster to tap on the screen. I used to use the ThinkOutside Bluetooth Mouse but I found that it was just too useless on a system with a passive digitizer. In any case, Arne, do you have A2DP accessible on your Universal? AVDP was also supposed to be implemented this year but I doubt that it will be on the Universal since Microsoft wants to have extremely stable usage.